Kitchen Confident

Photo by Magnus Skoglöf

"We have the best food site in Sweden," says alltommat.se editor-in-chief Susanne B. Olsson. "There is a lot of food on the Web and many people who can cook, but there is no other place where there is so much quality as alltommat.se."

Readers agree. The online collaboration ooperation between the evening newspaper Expressen and Allt om Mat ("All About Food") magazine was an immediate hit. Just three weeks after its launch in March 2008, alltommat.se became Sweden's largest food Web site, with an average of 200,000 unique users per month—a position it has maintained week after week since then.

Chocolate desserts are the killer app...
—Susanne B. Olsson

"Our biggest advantage is that we have archives of everything we've ever produced here at the office," says Susanne. "When we do our own custom packages, we have an incredible bank of tested recipes and stunning images to choose from."

Alltommat.se's recipe for success begins with a mix of light and sophisticated dishes, with a dash of food news and health information. The site entices visitors to return by serving up fresh content all day long. In the morning, users find recipes for smoothies; by 11 am, the homepage displays lunch food. At half past two, just in time for the afternoon coffee break, editors put up some irresistible tarts or cakes; an hour later, they offer inspiration for a recipe for a fast and simple dinner with few ingredients.

Their audience is hungry for more. "Potato dishes and pastas are always popular. Otherwise, low-calorie chocolate desserts are the killer app."

Susanne's next big endeavor will be the launch of a Web site for wine lovers, and she's got many other projects in the offing. She dreams of having a computer screen set to alltomat.se in the kitchen, so she can research recipes while she cooks.

And what does she like to make on her own?

"It varies all the time, because I get so much inspiration. Right now my favorite is a raspberry cheesecake with fudge sauce—it's unbeatable!"